election 2010

Networks broadcasting midterm election results attracted 11% more viewers than they did during the 2006 elections, and about a third more than the 2002 midterms, indicating the heightened level political interest among Americans concerned about House and Senate races, Nielsen reported Friday.

With the two houses divided, the parties will have to compromise to get legislation passed. But will they? The challenge will become acute if the Fed's latest stimulus gambit falls short, leaving the economy gasping. The GOP's aversion to spending could be tested.

It looks like a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California has failed. Proposition 19 would have made it legal for adults of drinking age to possess up to 1 ounce of pot, as well as to grow and smoke the drug in private, and would have authorized local governments to tax its sale.

As California voters wait to find out whether they've suspended a major global-warming law, which requires the state to scale back carbon emissions 25% to 1990 levels by 2020, New Mexico on Tuesday passed its own measure to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions

If history is any indicator, stocks tend to do best when the president is a Democrat and Congress is Republican. Other precedents offer conflicting signs. But it seems clear that stocks often outperform in the year after a midterm election.

As the mid-term election slowly draw nearer, we're taking a look at the companies whose deep pockets help keep America's political campaigns rolling along. With the help of the nonpartisan folks at the Center for Responsive Politics, we've combined a list of the top ten corporate campaign contributors, offering a look at the candidates they support, the issues that concern them, and their lobbying habits.

Stocks have a history of posting impressive gains in the fourth quarter of a mid-term election year. From a surprise tax cut to gridlock in D.C., there's a host of outcomes that could cause investors to celebrate.